This 4-hour course aims to equip participants to understand and explain key sustainability stewardship issues and practices relevant to the organisation and organisation’s sustainability goals.

Assistant Relationship Manager, Relationship Manager, Team Leader, Product Specialist, Investment Counsellor

• Explain sustainability stewardship as a practical expression of fiduciary duties of loyalty and care, and relate it to clients’ long-term investment objectives and values.
• Describe the relevance of Singapore’s stewardship landscape, including the Singapore Stewardship Principles 2.0, and communicate how their institution’s approach applies to suitable client products and mandates.
• Assess how active ownership, constructive engagement and escalation can help manage governance and sustainability risks, protect long-term investment value and inform a proportionate decision on divestment.
• Apply stewardship considerations across public equities, fixed income, private equity, venture capital and relevant family-office investment structures, recognising the differing rights, influence and information available in each asset class.
• Evaluate external fund managers’ stewardship capabilities by using appropriate Singapore and international benchmarks and by distinguishing stated commitments from evidence of implementation, escalation and outcomes.
• Incorporate stewardship factors into manager selection, mandate design, ongoing monitoring and client reporting for relevant discretionary and advisory portfolios.
• Identify and prioritise material ESG risks and stewardship themes across a client’s sector and portfolio exposures, using recognised materiality resources and considering climate, governance, social, biodiversity and cybersecurity issues.
• Conduct proportionate stewardship due diligence for private-equity and venture-capital investments by reviewing a general partner’s ESG processes, relevant limited-partnership provisions and delivery against stated commitments.
• Lead a structured client conversation on stewardship values and translate the client’s preferences into a practical stewardship action plan with clear objectives, KPIs and time horizons.
• Deliver transparent stewardship reporting that communicates achievements and challenges, tracks relevant indicators and voting or engagement activity where applicable, and manages actual or potential conflicts through formal identification, disclosure, escalation and documentation.

Section 1: Foundations of Sustainability Stewardship

• Define stewardship and explain its relevance to clients
• Describe the legal and fiduciary foundations of stewardship
• Identify the global megatrends that make stewardship essential today
• Map the stewardship ecosystem and your role within it
• Explain how stewardship applies across asset classes
• Distinguish between micro and macro stewardship approaches

Section 2: Stewardship Regulations, Best Practices, and Global Platforms Before the Storm

• Explain the seven principles of the Singapore Stewardship Principles (SSP) 2.0 , their purpose and their implications for practice
• Compare key international stewardship codes across Singapore, the UK, EU, Hong Kong, and Australia and apply them when assessing managers in cross-border portfolios
• Describe the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) and apply them as inputs to due diligence when assessing public and private-market managers
• Explain how Climate Action 100+ supports collaborative climate engagement, and how ICGN principles and advocacy strengthen governance and stewardship practice globally
• Support the implementation of your organisation's stewardship framework through client advisory, manager selection and monitoring and client reporting

Section 3: Identifying Material and Thematic Stewardship Issues

• Distinguish between single and double materiality and explain why both matter in client advisory
• Apply the SASB materiality filter and GRI Standards to identify ESG issues relevant to a client's portfolio sectors
• Identify the major thematic stewardship issues - climate, governance, social, biodiversity, and cybersecurity, across key asset classes
• Assess stewardship considerations specific to Private Equity and Venture
• Capital investments held in Family Office portfolios
• Interpret shareholder resolutions and other voting matters, and guide clients on exercising direct voting rights or assessing their managers’ voting decisions

Section 4: Client Advisory, Target Setting and Reporting

• Aligning Client Values with Material Stewardship Issues
• Guide HNW and Family Office clients in setting meaningful, measurable stewardship targets and KPIs
• Structure stewardship reporting that meets the expectations of sophisticated HNW and Family Office clients
• Identify and manage conflicts of interest between the bank, the client and investee companies
• Understand when escalation or eventual disengagement may be appropriate after unsuccessful engagement
• Communicate stewardship outcomes - including unsuccessful engagements with confidence, transparency and clarity

Assessment – MCQ

A pioneer in sustainability education, our trainer holds graduate degrees in finance and financial economics, and delivers workshops for multinational banks and government bodies. Her expertise spans climate risk, sustainable finance, and ESG regulatory frameworks. As a recognised speaker on the critical intersection of sustainability and financial practice, she holds multiple international certifications in climate risk, GHG verification, and assurance.

Our trainer is a chartered accountant and chartered management accountant with senior finance and sustainability leadership experience across global corporations. He has led major digital transformation programmes for a multinational bank and shaped global sustainability strategy for a leading consumer goods company. With multiple sustainability certifications, he brings a cross‑disciplinary perspective to ESG and sustainable finance education.